Honor Roll, valedictorian, Quill & Scroll, these were but a few of the award recipients honored during the Senior Awards Breakfast on Friday, June 5.  Hosted by the academic and college counselors, hundreds of Augustus F. Hawkins High School students received their graduation cords, and in the case of the yearbook and journalism classes, there were so many that they received their awards a few days early and came on stage during the breakfast so the rest of the class could congratulate them.

• Attendance: The first award was for proficiency in attendance for 4 years of high school. These students received a black, green, and white cord.
• i-Ready: Ms. Jackson handed out the next awards for i-Ready Testing. The Class of 2026 has much to be proud of.  Watch the entire ceremony, which was live-streamed on YouTube thanks to Katie Loza (Class of 2028).
• ACE: Students who participated in the ACE Architectural College Course were publicly awarded.
• Upward Bound: Students in the Upward Bound program with USC received sashes at the awards ceremony, which they are encouraged to wear during graduation.
•  Biliteracy Awards: Presented by Ms. Emily Piñeda, this recognition comes with a white cord signifying students who passed both their English and AP Spanish classes with a B or better, and they passed the Biliteracy exam.
• Way of the Hawk: This is a new award that comes with $500 towards college, and this award was given to Dr. Cynthia Castillo to the student with the most community service hours,  Jasmin Galimba, with 256 hours over four years.
• Journalism and Yearbook Classes: Seniors who actively participated in the production of news content and yearbook and received a certain grade were selected to receive the Hawk House Publishing red cord.
• Quill & Scroll International Honor Society for High School Journalists: Mrs. Moore (Journalism)  and Mrs. J Rivera (Yearbook) honored 22 new inductees into the third class of the Augustus F. Hawkins Quill and Scroll Chapter Initiates. The ceremony was conducted by former Advocate News editor Angie Guandique, class of 2022, on May 21st during the Hawk House Publishing Awards Banquet.  These student inductees into the Quill and Scroll took an oath that no matter what career they find themselves in, they will be guided by the following eight principles: TRUTH, LEARNING, LEADERSHIP, LOYALTY, INITIATIVE, INTEGRITY, JUDGMENT, and FRIENDSHIP.  Teacher Wren presented at the award breakfast students with the gold and blue cords.

• Honor Roll Silver: GPA 3.0 to 3.49. These seniors received a silver cord.
• High Honor Roll Gold: GPA 3.5 to 3.79. These seniors received a gold cord.
• Superintendent Honor Roll Purple: GPA 3.8 and higher. These seniors received a purple cord and medallion from the LAUSD Superintendent
• Salutatorian – Black Cord: To qualify in LAUSD, a student must hold the second-highest cumulative, weighted Grade Point Average calculated using grades from the 9th grade through the first semester of the 12th grade, and will be asked to deliver one of the graduation speeches, Joshua Martinez
• Valedictorian – Black Cord: To qualify in LAUSD, a student must hold the highest cumulative, weighted Grade Point Average calculated using grades from the 9th grade through the first semester of the 12th grade, and will be asked to deliver one of the graduation speeches. 

Other cords and awards from Hawkins HS, include:

• Maroon – Breakfast Club Book Club for promoting literacy and reading for fun.
• White and Purple – Leadership
• Orange – Robotics Club
• Black & White – Music Club
• Red, Black and Green – BSU

If your club distributes cords for seniors and is not on this list, please post a comment.  Tell us the club name, advisor and cord color.

Congratulations class of 2026. Have a great graduation day.